Posted on 04/16/2015 12:53:07 PM PDT by VinL
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz's argument that the Second Amendment provides the "ultimate check against government tyranny" is a bit too extreme for potential 2016 rival and fellow Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
"Well, we tried that once in South Carolina. I wouldn't go down that road again," Graham said, in an apparent reference to the Civil War. "I think an informed electorate is probably a better check than, you know, guns in the streets."
Speaking to a few reporters near the Senate floor Thursday, Graham was answering questions from TPM about the Texas firebrand and presidential candidate's argument made in a fundraising email that the Second Amendment confers a right to revolt against the government.
"The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution isn't for just protecting hunting rights, and it's not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny -- for the protection of liberty," Cruz wrote in the email Thursday, with the subject line "2nd Amendment against tyranny."
Graham demurred. "I'm not looking for an insurrection. I'm looking to defeat Hillary," he said. "We're not going to out-gun her."
While a consistent supporter of gun rights, Graham voiced a more mainstream legal view of the Second Amendment, as the Supreme Court first articulated in the landmark 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, that individuals have a right to possess a firearm for lawful self-defense.
"I think the Second Amendment allows people to protect their homes and their property and be secure in their persons," the senator said. "I think in a democracy the best check on government is voter participation. I think the First Amendment probably protects us more there."
Graham will be going for the squishy, RINO vote.
Linda is being so civil-warish, when Cruz was talking solely about 1776.
C’mon Linduh!
Come out of the closet, you panzy ass, intellectual, insurrectionist.
Here is the letter I sent the insulting twit, in response to that epithet at the time: Letter to Lindsey Graham.
Ya ain't gonna outsmart her either. Graham has had his head up is a$$ for so long, his biological refuse is smarter than he is.
well ya beat me to it ...
Flimsey Tinkerbelle doesn’t even realize that South Carolina took part in two insurrections, the Revolutionary War & the War Between the States.
So Grahamnasty hates Ted Cruz? That’s one more plus for Cruz.
CRUZ or Lose!
If we had an informed electorate, he'd be saying "Do you want fries with that?"
-— I think an informed electorate is probably a better check than, you know, guns in the streets.” -—
Maybe Linda doesn’t know that”ultimate” means “last,” as in last resort, as Cruz said.
Yeah, we tried that once in 1776. How did that work out?
Thank God, the Founders Gave Americans the Right of the 2nd when the Ballot Box has failed!
A little scared are we now, Linda?
Graham better watch how he runs his boy toy repository
He has his way in South Carolina with lighweight goofballs like Thomas Ravanel
Ted Cruz is no Thomas Ravanel
F’in goofball. This is what we really, really need. Just like a Dem, deliberately misinterpret every statement out of any Republican so that the Rep is made to look silly so that the net effect is that any kind of constructive message never gets out. What a stupid saboteur.
Show ‘Linda’ even a picture of a gun and I bet ‘she’ would get the vapors.
Exactly right. “An informed electorate” includes those who have been informed to “A vote for me is a vote for free stuff!”
He’s an idiot.
Lindsay, nobody ever expected to be able to count on you when the going gets rough, so don’t get your panties in a twist.
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